(CNN) There is a battle in Hollywood that may affect your TV viewing.
Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike as of midnight Monday because they were unable to reach a new contract agreement with studios as the industry shifted more to streaming.
Here’s where audiences might see an impact due to the production stoppage.
Late night TV gets hit first
James Austin Johnson and Kenan Thompson on “Saturday Night Live.”
Comedy shows that help us wrap up our days, like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” will be the first to go dark as they rely on the book for everything from opening monologues to skits and celebrity interviews.
Likewise, for variety shows like “Saturday Night Live.”
If it’s an earlier one, you’ll see replays instead of live shows.
More reality TV?
Contestants on “The Amazing Race” in 2013.
The WGA’s last 100-day strike lasted from 2007 to 2008. During that time, the networks relied more on unscripted shows not under the writers’ guild oversight.
Shows like “Big Brother” and “Celebrity Apprentice” helped fill the gap for scripted shows whose productions were paused during the strike. The same thing could happen this time on linear TV.
If you’ve got an idea for a new reality show, now might be the time to give it a try.
Written Comedy and Drama
Ali Wong as Amy in the Netflix series Beef.
Many shows are running on both linear and streaming platforms well in advance of actually writing new episodes. This means that the strike will have to go on for some time before viewers miss their shows. Some platforms, like Netflix, have promised that they’ll be able to offer new TV shows and movies for quite some time.
“We really don’t want this to happen. But we have to make plans for the worst,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said last month. “We have a very strong list of releases that will take us a long time but just be clear, we are at the table and we will try to find a fair solution so there is no strike.”
flow effect
A big change between the end of the strike in 2008 and now is the plethora of streaming services (Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, etc.) with many shows and movies available.
HBO Max promises more new content with its Max relaunch on May 23rd.
Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said. Discovery, at a recent event: “We’re ready to go guns blazing with our products and platforms around the world.” (HBO and CNN are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Because of this, fans will have less opportunity this time to complain about having nothing to watch in the event of a strike.
If you have a long list of series that you haven’t found the time to watch yet, bumping might give some viewers a chance to catch up.